Product Overview

A key feature of corporate websites should be the inclusion of content management tools to allow the site's resources to be maintained and updated by end users, without the intervention of programmers. To remain relevant, website content needs to be continually updated and with traditional web sites this has led to high maintenance costs, or sites falling into disuse due to the lack of relevant or timely resources.

Content Management has become the issue with web site development. Content Management Systems (CMS) have emerged as a potential solution to this problem. CMS are software tools that assist users in management of web resources but they come at a cost. Forrester Research estimates that putting "in place a basic content management system will cost you more that $1 million and a fancy solution will cost much more" (Sydney Morning Herald Feb 13, 2001).

Our experience has also been that legal departments are unlikely to be given top priority when accessing in-house web development or programming resources.

A Portal is a website concerned with the organization and presentation of electronic resources. These resources can be links, documents (Word, PDF, HTML, PowerPoint etc.), search and navigation devices, communication tools and applications. Applications can include e-Learning, document automation or workflow tools.

The Portal Builder provides a simple method for legal (or other) departments to organise and present electronic resources as a website. Layout and content are managed by users (subject to appropriate permission) without requiring technical support or programmer involvement.

The portal comprises main and target page templates, which are populated from a SQL Server database. The appearance of the site can be altered easily by altering a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and the head and footer modules.

Portal Builder provides:

• News scroller, archive and maintenance tools
• User control of content organisation and presentation devices used
• End user upload of resources
• Ease of customisation to match corporate branding
• "Gadgets" - these are simple but useful tools, such as calculators and links to general web based resources that increase the utility and appeal of the site.